Pressure on the Skin
by hxdawn705
Summary: "I know I'm a hypocrite, that's how I ended up here." She thought she could keep a family together. She thought she could keep control. That she had to carry the world upon her shoulders. She was brainwashed... Rated T for now, may go up in the future on account of John Bender. REVISED, Narrative has switched from first person to third person.
1. That's Detention For You!

**Pressure under the Skin (A Breakfast Club FanFiction)**

**Chapter 1**

_Friday, March 23, 1984_

_Shermer High School_

"Bender!"

The young man in question turned his head in the direction of a girl's voice to see a young brunette marching right for him and his group of fellow deviants from across the parking lot at the back of the school. They were gathered near one of their cars under the shade of a tree, smoking everything but their shoes no doubt.

"I found something you might have been missing." She declared when she stopped in front of him, pulling the bag of offensive substance from her book bag and holding it out at arm's length.

"Mmm … no I haven't." he said with a smirk that the young woman wanted so badly to wipe off his dumb smug face. It was true, Jude did pay for it. The only way she knew this was that the pocket money that had been giving her brother for lunch the past several weeks had disappeared since she realized he was getting what he could for lunch from his friends, as if she wouldn't have notice eventually.

"Look, I don't want the money back, it was Jude's, so he can pay for his stupid mistake. But don't make the same one of selling to him again. Do you understand?" Making the threat perfectly clear in a low voice

"Or what?" he scoffed, raising to his full height and her challenge, stepping closer to her and invading her space. Something he knew was a sure way to make her uncomfortable and he waited to see if it would show in her face. But to his irritation, it didn't. If he had any affect her at all, she didn't let it show He knew that she wouldn't be stupid enough to try and fight him, considering she was probably only a few inches over five feet and he could easily take her. Not that he would but it was still a good idea to at let her think he could do it. But truthfully, that option very even occurred to her.

She took the moment to really look at John Bender and his friends. They looked like your average pack of delinquents. Sure, they were troublemakers and got caught smoking, vandalizing, or shoplifting, all of which were pretty petty things and not too dangerous but she couldn't help but wonder if they would eventually work their ways up to much bigger crimes once they were out of this school, but they were for the most part harmless for now. That was the only reason why she didn't have many reservations in approaching them now, as she never had a reason to before. She knew that it was best to stay clear of them and they had never really bothered her, with the exception of a risqué remark every now and again when she walked passed their group in the halls, which was always ignored or barely acknowledged.

Snapping back into the present she realized that the only thing that she could think of that she would be able do was to call the cops or tell Vernon, the principal, but realizing how childish it would sound if she said it out loud. So she went with a more ominous response.

"You'll see."

"Ya know, you should take some, relax a little." Bender suggested with the same smirk he constantly wore.

The answer was clear when the bag was shoved into his chest.

"No, thanks! And stay away from Jude, the last thing I need is a brother that is constantly blazed like you guys!" she snapped before turning on the heels of her combat boots and march off across the parking lot, heading back inside.

"Hey Pruett! What you need, I'd be happy to share!" shouted one of Bender's friends which was followed by howls of laughter.

She didn't turn around to see whatever crude gesture the moron was probably doing, instead only responded with her own crude gesture by giving them the bird as she walked into the building. The jerks were lucky flush didn't flush their shit, maybe it would have been a better idea but she needed to send a message to them. She tried to shake her anger off as she stepped inside and headed to the cafeteria. Time to enjoy what was left of lunch period.

* * *

It had not occurred to her that Jude would learn so soon about what his sister had done so she wasn't prepared for him to brush past her in the hall with a cold stare after 5th period. Though it wouldn't have surprised her that one of those idiots shared a class with him and gave him shit about his uptight older sister. True, most of them were technically seniors but some of them probably had to retake freshman level classes in order to graduate, like that would ever happen.

She had walk twice as fast to catch up with him. He had shot up like a sprout in the time since he started high school, he now had a good five inches on me on his sister easily and while she wasn't particularly fond of this new change but it was nice having someone to reach for things on shelves without having to climb onto something to reach. After having caught up to him and grabbed his arm in a failed attempt to get him to face her, he shook her off and glared at her with his almond shaped brown eyes. Which was something else they had in common, other than their hair; they certainly looked and acted the part of siblings.

He might have not wanted to talk about this here and now but she didn't care if they were in the middle of the hall for everyone to see, they were going to talk about this now, while she still had fresh anger for him.

"Hey, what's the problem?" she asked, as if she didn't already know.

"You know what. I can't believe you did that. You embarrassed me and now those guys are going to keep giving me shit."

"I thought they already did."

"Yeah, and now it's gone because you had to snoop in my room."

"I did not snoop, Jeremy came across it this morning while you were in the shower. You share the room with him, if you didn't want it to be found than you should have hidden it harder than in the sock drawer." She snapped as they began to walk side by side now.

"I guess that means that I'm an idiot, right?" he snapped back as they reached his red locker.

"Only for buying pot from Bender. I can't believe _you_ did that! I'd think you'd know better considering what Mom is into."

People were turning to stare now, so she tried her best to block them out and lowered her voice, Jude was an idiot but she didn't want him to be in trouble with anyone, other than with her that is. She also didn't care to have people know about Karen.

"Jude, you really need to stop this," she leaned in closer, "Why did you do it? Did they give you shit? C'mon, talk to me."

_Like you used to_, was the unspoken implication that hung between them. He took the books he needed out of his locker before sighing in frustration.

"Just stop, okay? You're my mom.

"I never said I was!" she said, shocked he would even think something like that.

"You don't have to. It's obvious from the way you treat me, okay? You're a kid, just like me! Like Jeremy and Sophie! You're not my mom and you're not their mom, so stop acting like it!"

"And if I did, you think you'd be better off? I don't think getting high and wasting your life is better than having someone who loves you, watch out for you."

"Whatever! Just leave me alone." he snapped before slamming his locker shut and disappeared in the crowd of students pushing against each other to get to class on time. And in an instant, she was alone in the hallway.

_This is such bullshit,_ she thought to herself as the tears threatened to spill over which were furiously wiped away_. He should have been thanking me for keeping his ass from getting in trouble_. He would've gotten caught because considering their luck as a family, it was inevitable. _It better be by me than by Vernon, right?_ Groaning in aggravation, she kicked his locker with all her might. And instantly regretted it. Bending over in pain to rub her big toe through her boot, she thought of the condition that her life was currently in right now as she leaned against the lockers.

_I didn't want to deal with any of this now or ever_. She had a long work shift waiting for her tonight right after my last period and a lot of homework to complete before the weekend was up, and not to mention that they would also be getting a visit from the social worker Monday to check up on Karen. So that also meant she'd have to round up the rest of my siblings to help get the house and their mother in order. And she didn't need Jude's muck ups to add to my stress. Then, for some reason, she heard Bender's voice in her head, it was something he had said during their lovely encounter earlier.

"_Ya know, you should take some, relax a little."_

Part of her wished now that she had taken him up on that offer, if there was ever a time to relax, it was now. Her sensible side chided myself for being such a hypocrite. Although she had gotten high before but only once in freshman year and she had thought that she had gotten it out of her system, Jude could never know that of course. Sure it was fun at the time but that was before Karen started using.

Then she suddenly remembered the pack of cigarettes in her own locker. For someone that quit smoking, she seemed to have "forgotten" to get rid of the cigarettes. Well…just one wouldn't hurt, right_? It's only one more cig closer to lung cancer, right?_ She thought darkly to myself. _One more then, I'll throw the rest away and then I'm done for good. _Besides, she needed let out this anger before she went and took it out on someone that didn't deserve it. She also was not about to invite anyone here into their private family business.

Walking down the lonely hall to the locker, she quickly tried to think of an appropriate place to do the deed, somewhere where she was least likely to be caught. The parking lot was the first place to come to mind but then she remembered that her car was parked in the back, not too far from where Bender and his friends liked to cut class and get high, some of them were probably still there and she would have rather choke on her own cigarette than let them see her go out there and smoke.

There was always the girls bathroom near the cafeteria, lunch was over so there shouldn't have been anyone hanging around. Mind made up and without stopping to think about it too much or else she'd chicken out, she ran as quickly as she could, hoping that no faculty was patrolling the halls, to her locker to get the pack and down the stairs, heading for the cafeteria. In less than minutes she had huddled into her own stall, raiding her bag for a lighter. Papers and pens came spilling out in her quest to try and to calm her nerves as soon as possible. Once both lighter and cigarette in hand, brought the white stick to her lips and lit it up.

After the first exhale, she was almost instantly calmed. The troubles had been plaguing her mind were blown out with the smoke. _Why did I try to give this up?_ As she let herself release the tension in her body and leaned against the door, she let her mind wonder.

Jude was really pissing everyone off these days, she could get that he was freshman and was adjusting to high school, but the year was almost over for God's sake. He was constantly in a mood, it was a chore in of itself to get him to help with the chores around the house and with Jeremy and Sophie. And for the life of her, she didn't understand what was wrong and he wouldn't talk about it. He may not have realized it but she didn't have it together like she would like him to think. That much was obvious from what she was doing right now. She needed his help too. In fact, it should have been obvious.

_When did everything become so screwed up?_

It could probably be pinpointed to when their dad had walked out several years ago, everything had seemed to be perfect up until then, but she was proven so wrong. She don't know what happened but one day, he was just gone. It was then that she knew that she needed to step up and work to keep them all together because their mother was unreachable and wouldn't let any of her children in. And now, every day, the eldest feared walking through the door to find that her dead. Or worse, she just disappeared.

RING! RING! RING!

* * *

She was jerked out of the memories by the sound of the fire alarm. Shit! Did the smoke set it off? Oh God, she couldn't believe it. Instinct took over and she realized that she needed to get out, now. After tossing the cigarette butt into the toilet and flushed, she wiped the tears that she had just realized were running down her pale face. She grabbed her bag, unlocked the stall, and rushed out. Not looking in time to see the new visitor that just walked into the ladies room.

"Everyone outside, now- AH!"

"Ouch!" she yelped, falling back on her behind.

The girl had just collided with Mrs. Burch, a tall gaunt faced Geology teacher that wasn't too fond of her. That was probably because of the number of time the teenager had fallen asleep during Burch's class during freshman year. She breathed in the foul air and knew instantly.

"What do you think you are doing?" she demanded.

The girl couldn't think of nothing to do or say for herself, because nothing would have convinced the older woman that she had not just caught the girl smoking in the bathroom. She walked right over the girl's jean clad legs and headed straight for the stall to investigate. She came out holding the lighter, and presented it inches from the girls face. She had stupidly left it on the toilet paper dispenser. She could only gape at her old teacher, dreading the punishment she was about to give.

"Sadie Pruett! This means 3 Saturday detentions! Come with me!" she demanded, taking the girl by the arm, pulling her up to her feet, and drug her out of the bathroom.

She kept her grip on Sadie's arm while they walked out of the building with the rest of the students, faculty remained inside to search for any real fires that may have cause the alarm to go off. Sadie's heart sank, knowing that she was the cause of this and she only bowed her head and kept silent as did Mrs. Burch, who remained on the culprits arm, giving her the dirtiest of looks, making sure that she didn't run off. Which wouldn't have help in this situation anyway.

Once the students were given the word to go back to their last period of the day, Burch practically drug Sadie to Vernon's office. As they walked in, she saw John Bender walking out. _Oh, great._

As he passed, she chanced a glance at him and of course he was staring right at her. Raising an eyebrow, daring him to say something, his mouth enveloped into a crooked grin and she could hear him laughing as he walked away with all his swagger, like he owned the hallway.

After being pushed into Vernon's office, Burch explained what had happened and Vernon took over once he had heard what he needed to. As he berated Sadie, she sank further into the chair across the Principals desk, wishing that she could disappear. She responded with the appropriate apology as he assigned the detentions that Burch had promised and took it like a true repentant and when she was finally released, last period had been released as well.

Walking out of school, she didn't pay mind to anyone, oblivious to sidelong glances and questioning eyes and it wasn't until she had reached her car and sped out of the parking lot when she finally let the new tears spill down her face, not caring that her mascara was running.

She allowed herself a small cry session before drying them when she turned onto the street where the dry cleaners that worked at was located, where she did alterations and repairs for their customers clothes. The irony wasn't lost on her that she was all kinds of domesticated, much to her dissatisfaction.

Pulling into a spot in behind the store, she sat back in my seat and turned the radio up and waited until the last possible minute before she had to go inside. Thinking back on the day she had and could only sighed. Jude was sure to find out what happened, her house would be getting a call from the school to notify her family of her detentions. The chewing out she'd receive once she got home would not be pretty and she'd have no choice to but to take it. That was probably the most idiotic thing she had probably done. It was as stupid as what Jude had done. He was right, she was just a kid, like he was. And she had no idea what she was doing.

"Help me out here." she whispered, soft brown eyes directed up. She felt awkward as she didn't often address 'the powers that be' and/or God directly. He didn't seem to notice her often, so she had doubts if He even knew she existed.

Then a song started to play on the classic rock station that she listened to, which grabbing her attention.

"_Help! I need somebody! Help! Not just anybody! Help! You know I need…"_

Rolling her eyes, shesaid, "Very funny." Before looking at her watch. It read 3:58, so with that she wiped the black smears, the trace of the running mascara, and got out of the car and walked inside, feeling like an idiot.


	2. An Impression of Life At Sadie's House

**A/N: The first half of this chapter was hard for me because, like you, I want to get to detention already but this is an important chapter for my OC and her family. Need to consider character development, I'd like to give a shout out and thank the people that are following: SuperNaturalxxFreak, ADotAQuestion, drewLOVE, sbolzzz, and bjklint1! And to thetroublewithexes for favoriting!**

**Just so we are all clear about my updating schedule, Mondays are my deadline for the next chapter, if I can write and post before Monday I will but don't expect more than one chapter a week. I'm pacing myself and I really want to see this story through as I've never actually completed a fanfiction challenge or multi chapter story, so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes. **

**Also, I found a few fun quizzes on Buzzfeed, 'What John Hughes Classic Are You?" I got Breakfast Club, I swear that I didn't even try to get it but I was delighted to get that result. The other is 'Which Breakfast Club Character Are You?' And I got Andrew, which was unexpected. I was more of a blend of Allison and Brian in high school but this does help me relate to Andy better, and the point of the movie is that there is little be of each of them in all of us right? Links are on my profile and let me know what you get!**

**Also got my Breakfast Club in the mail today! Yay for things! So I'm good to go now.**

**Chapter 3 will be up on Monday!**

**I own nothing except Sadie, her family, and any other OC's that pop up along the way. Sadly, I don't own John Bender. And remember! Reviews are good for the soul!**

* * *

It was 10 pm when Sadie was finally home from work. Once inside, she leaned against the front door, back aching so badly, perhaps she could get Jeremy to sit on it later.

Remembering that she had detention tomorrow, she shuffled to the kitchen to make the lunch I\she'd take with her. To her pleasant surprise, she found her youngest siblings sitting at the table. Sophie, who was 13, was dutifully doing her homework. Jeremy, the youngest with 5 years to his credit, was happily coloring in Sadie's sketches. After she got grades on the sketches from her art class, she would let him color them in. Honestly, he probably did a better job than she would have.

Jeremy was a small sweet faced boy with the same medium brown hair of his oldest two siblings but the thing that set him apart from the rest of the Pruett brood were the wide bright blue eyes of his father which he was the only one to inherit, while the rest had the almond shaped light brown eyes of their mother. That included Sophie as well, but her identifier was even more obvious than Jeremy's, which she also inherited from their father, his red gold hair.

She kept it long and usually down, it was the only aspect of Sophie's appearance that she was somewhat vain about because entering puberty had forced her body to start going through a number of changes that she didn't really care for, like the freckles plaguing her body, or the small mounds appearing on her chest which she wished were gone, or the hair that had begun to grow in uncomfortable spots. Yes, her hair was the only thing she liked about the way she looked right now, it also have her some small satisfaction to know that Sadie envied her for it. As a girl who valued her mind above all things, she would be lying if she didn't admit to some insecurities about her looks.

"Hey, guys. How was your day?" Sadie asked, placing her bag in a chair while taking her long green coat off.

"Pretty good. We got our midterm reports today. It's on the refrigerator." Sophie answered first, the pride clear in her tone. I walked to the fridge that held her report hanging on the freezer door by a magnet. I didn't even have to look to know that she had great grades and I was right, all A's except for a B- in English.

As much as she was proud of her younger sister for the near perfect grades she brought home, it made Sadie sad to see her home on a Friday night, doing homework no less! And she couldn't help but wonder if Sophie's choice was made from dedication to getting good grades or if it was because she didn't have any friends to be with on a night like this. She never saw any friends over and she never heard any mention of any friends. If she wanted to go out, Sadie would have been more than happy to see that. Sophie had a good head on her shoulders, she could be trusted. Jude, on the other hand, Sadie wasn't so sure about right now.

"So I heard you got busted for smoking in the girl's room."

Speak of the devil. The accusatory tone in Jude's voice couldn't be missed. Sadie closed her eyes as he entered the tiny kitchen, preparing for the fight that was about to go down.

"You were smoking!?" Jeremy exclaimed, those big blue eyes stared at her, a shocked expression on his face, frozen in his chair. Another pang of guilt struck her heart, if there was anyone that she couldn't bear to have disappointed in her and it was Jeremy. She knew that you're not supposed to have favorites in your family, but for her, it was Jeremy.

Maybe it was because he was baby of the family. But it was probably because he was the cleanest slate among us and he would be the one that she would have the most influence on. With him, she felt the greatest pressure to not mess him up. She felt she had to give him what Jude, Sophie, and herself weren't give, his best chance. He was only 3 when Dad left after all

"Yes, I have detention tomorrow and the two Saturdays after that. So I'll need you guys to help out more around here when I'm gone, like the dishes and I won't be here to tell you to clean your rooms, so I'm telling you now." Sadie explained, turning to open the fridge door and taking out the things needed to make her sandwich.

"So we have to pick up the slack for your mistake?" Jude complained.

"Yes. I know it's not fair but that's the way it is." She sighed apologetically.

Sophie decided to get her two cents in.

"You do know that smoking is a major cause of a number of cancers and emphysema, right? Do you also remember that you said if you ever caught any of us smoking that you'd wipe the floor with us?" she said as if she was reading straight from the encyclopedia.

"Yeah, so what makes you the exception?" Jude snarled viciously, sitting down at the table, putting his feet up.

"You're right, I did say that, now I'm saying that you should do as I say, not as I do." She snapped at the middle children with as much bite, turning to face them, which hushed both of them up.

As soon as the words left her lips, she wanted to kick herself in the face. She turned her back on them to continue making the sandwich. Just ham, cheese, and mustard between two slices of bread. Sadie stayed quiet to wait for the anger to pass before speaking again. In the meantime, she berated herself for what she had just said. It was so hypocritical. So adult. That sounded something like their mom would have said, which reminded her…

"Have you seen Mom since you got home?"

"Yeah, she came by to get some clothes and left. Said she's be back Sunday." Jude muttered.

Sadie was somewhat relieved to hear that, not only because she had actually told them when she would be back this time but also because she wouldn't have to see her before then. She welcomed and dreaded the times when she came home. Welcomed because they knew she was alright. Dreaded because an argument was always bound to happen between Sadie and their mother. But she chose not to think of it now…

After finishing the sandwich, she moved about the kitchen to put other things in a brown bag to complete her lunch and she couldn't help but think that it was pretty sad that this was a typical weekend for them. Karen would take her things and disappear to her boyfriend's house. In a sad way, she reminded Sadie of a dog, she only came home for food. When she wasn't doing her shift as a cashier at Happy Foods or spending the welfare check, she was with Mitch, her boyfriend and sadly, her dealer as well. But it better than him spending all of his time at their house but fortunately, he couldn't stand Sadie or her siblings._ Pests_, they were to him and not his responsibility, thank Christ…

"I have to be there at 7 tomorrow morning, so I'm going to bed. Please don't stay up too late, okay?" she asked them with a deliberately kinder tone as she placed the now completed lunch in the refrigerator.

Jude grunted to show that he had heard as he helped Jeremy color, Sophie only nodded while she was reading her textbook. Jeremy stopped what he was doing to get up from his chair and in a matter of second, he had crossed the kitchen to his oldest sister. Placing his small arms around her hips and burying his little face in her belly, he squeezed with all of his might.

"Night night, Sadie!" he said, looking up at Sadie with bright eyes and a smile. It melted her heart instantly and she scooped him up into a tight hug.

"Sweet dreams, Jerry." she whispered before placing him back on the floor with a kiss on the cheek, to which he giggled and playfully wiped off his face.

"And stop smoking!" he ordered, pointing a finger and looking up with a stern look, to show he meant business.

"I will." She laughed, hand over heart to show her promise.

With that, he took off for the living room and she heard the TV turn on. She looked to Sophie next.

"Don't study too hard." Sadie gently teased.

"Impossible." She smirked, eyes never leaving the page.

Sadie moved to her chair to lean down and kiss her head, wrapping an arm around her shoulders for a side hug before leaving her to work in peace. She turned to Jude at last.

"Good night, Jude." She said, but it somehow come out sounding more like a question but she was disappointed as he refused to meet her eyes.

"Yeah, night." He grumbled.

If he had been looking at her then maybe he would have realized how much that hurt. But she walked past with a pat on his shoulder before heading down the hall and upstairs to hers and Sophie's room.

They had shared the room since Sophie had been born, so Sadie hadn't had her own room since she was four. At first glance, it was clear who had which side, because Sophie's was organized with hardly any clutter, her bed covered with a light blue comforter and white sheets. Her wall covered with pictures of far off cities like London, New York, and Paris. The places she wanted to go one day. And Sadie knew that with Sophie's brains, she'd make it to at least one of these places.

They shared the bookcase, closet and dresser but Sadie's side was distinct with her sewing machine on a table across from the disheveled bed with her green comforter and black sheet above which were the pictures of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and Joan Jett, her music idols that adorned her wall. Among many others

She quickly changed into a large t-shirt and black shorts, not even bothering to put her school clothes in the hamper. Finally collapsed on the twin bed, she hoped that a peaceful deep sleep would soon come…

* * *

That night, Sadie's dreams were filled with the sounds of accusations, demands, and sobs. All that came from her mother the night her father left. Her wails and cracking voice echoed in Sadie's mind as she tossed and turned in bed. There were memories to remind her how she constantly failed to step up to take care of the family like she should have and new dreams that taunted her with things she should have done but didn't. Then there was that one phrase repeating over and over again in her mind that refused to stop. A distant voice whispering softly in her ear and sent chills down her spine.

"_Well, I don't know how anyone could leave you."_

RING! RING! RING!

* * *

The alarm clock blared at 5:45am, after hitting the snooze button, Sadie spent five minutes battling between the want to curl up in the warm bed to sleep longer and the need to get ready so she could get to detention on time and not get any more detentions, the last thing she needed. Once the alarm went off again and she heard Sophie's groan from her side of the room, she set it off quickly. She had to avoid waking anyone up, it was Saturday after all and they didn't have detention to go to, so they could sleep in as long as they liked. Especially if they were up late watching TV, as they usually did on Friday nights.

She couldn't put it off any longer. Dragging herself out of bed, she began searching for clean clothes which actually turned out to be challenging. She'd have to do her laundry tonight since she spent more time looking for clean clothes than was necessary. All of her jeans and tee shirts smelled, so she resorted to picking out a black skirt that hugged her hips before flaring out until it hit above her knees.

Considering the cold temperature outside, she decided to slip black tights over her legs and finally pulled a soft yellow sweater over her head. Looking in the mirror by the door, she remembered why she didn't often wear the sweater, it was baggy and one of the long sleeves tended to slide off the shoulder. She gave in to her superficial side by grabbing a black belt from the closet to throw around her waist, the intention was to make her look less frumpy. Satisfied that the outfit was decent enough, she pulled on the pair of well-loved combat boots.

Walking quietly down the hall to her mother's room, she went into the master bathroom. Which was the bathroom she used mostly, as no one else did really since their mother was rarely home to use it. There were even nights every now and then, when she would sleep in the master bedroom when their mother wasn't home.

She quickly brushed her hair and teeth and once she finished putting her long hair into its usual side braid and threw some eyeliner and mascara on, the clock read 6:40. And it would take at least 15 minutes to get to school.

She ran down the stairs and into the kitchen to get her lunch and school bag. She then quickly jotted down a note for Jude:

_Please start a load of laundry._

_Thanks and love you!_

_-Sadie_

Placing the note on the fridge, she flew to the door, grabbed her coat off the nearby hook and walked out. Once the door was locked, she practically sprinted to her car. A 1980 Rabbit, beige. Ugly as hell but got her from A to B and so she couldn't complain too much. She sped out of the driveway and raced to get to Shermer High before 7.

* * *

She managed to walk through the front doors of the school exactly at 7, walking behind a dark haired girl wearing a dark coat. It didn't take long for her to realize that they both had detention as they headed for the library. Walking in behind the dark girl, she glanced at the other kids in detention. There were six tables, split into three rows in the front of the library and there were a number of chairs to choose from to sit.

The girl, who hadn't even seemed to notice Sadie's presence, walked straight for the back table and sat in the seat furthest from everyone else. The first person Sadie noticed was a redhead sitting in the front and, unfortunately, she knew exactly who she was. Claire Standish, Shermer's Princess.

Quickly moving on, her eyes landed on a stone faced boy that sat next to Claire, he wearing a blue letterman jacket. She probably should have known who he was, he was clearly a popular jock and he looked very familiar, but no name came to mind. She spotted the front table that was parallel to theirs that was thankfully empty, and I quickly walked past the Populars to sit down in the middle seat.

After she had sat her bag on the table and was in the process of taking her coat off, she had the feeling of being watched. Looking up, she realized that she had been right, as Claire and the jock now were looking at her and then she finally looked at the others in the room. A blonde boy sat diagonally from her at the table behind hers. Finally she noticed that, across the way at his own table, with his legs propped up on a chair, was John Bender. She wasn't surprised to see him, she did see him in Vernon's office after all, what else he would be doing in there but receiving detention? Once they made eye contact, he only smirked as Sadie narrowed her eyes and turned around to face the front in time to see Vernon walk in.

"Well, well. Here we are." He said once he was standing in front of his prisoners. "I wanna congratulate you for being on time."

Claire raised her hand quickly.

"Excuse me, sir? I think there's been a mistake. I know its detention, but I don't think I belong in here."

Vernon shared Sadie's annoyance as he just ignored Claire to check his watch and continued speaking as if she had said nothing.

"It is now 7:06. You have exactly eight hours and 54 minutes to think about why you're here. Ponder the error of your ways. You may not talk. You will not move from these seats…"

The last statement was aimed at the blonde boy behind Sadie, who was trying to move to the seat next to him but froze when he was caught and obediently shifted back to his original spot. Vernon's next statement was for Bender when he said that there wouldn't be any sleeping, grabbing the chair which held Bender's legs up out from under him.

Sadie didn't know about anyone else but she was definitely planning on taking a nap if they could only sit there for almost 9 hours, she already knew I'd be breaking that rule, considering the night I had…

"All right, people, we're going to try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay of no less than 1000 words, describing to me who you think you are."

"Is this a test?" asked Bender.

Again, Vernon ignored a student. Did the man hear anything other than the sound of his own voice? He continued passing out paper to each student.

"And when I mean essay, I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated 1000 times. Is that clear, Mr. Bender?"

"Crystal."

"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe you'll even decide whether or not you care to return."

The blonde rose out of his seat.

"Uh, I can answer that right now, sir. That'd be 'no' for me, cause …"

"Sit down, Johnson." Vernon interrupted.

"Thank you, sir." Johnson said, Sadie turned to look at him as he sat and she did her best to give an apologetic smile which he shyly returned when he saw her looking at him, casting his blue eyes down to the table in front of him. He seemed sweet.

Unknown to both Johnson and Sadie, Bender was looking at the blonde boy, sizing him up and frowned at the almost instant friendly vibe between him and Pruett. He didn't care for it to be honest, considering how coldly she looked at him when she sat down. He turned his attention back to Dick.

"My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I got a question. Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?" he looked at Vernon coolly.

Like the others, Sadie had to bite her lips to keep the smirk off her face at Bender's question. The jerk could be amusing at times, she'd give him that at least. Vernon obviously didn't think it was so funny.

"I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull, young man, you'll get horns." He threatened before walking out of the library.

For a principal, he seemed like he could dish it out as well as he could take it.

"That man is a brownie hound." He pointed at Vernon's retreating back.

No one said anything in response, mostly likely because they didn't want to encourage a conversation with Bender. In Sadie's case, she wasn't quite sure what that meant. Brownie hound. But she got the feeling that she didn't want to know. So instead she just kept her mouth shut and didn't let her ignorance show. Besides, if they all just ignored Bender than maybe he'd get bored and leave them all alone, right?


	3. Bella Donna

**A/N: Hey everyone! I went and revised/edited my previous chapters, so you may want to go back and read the updated versions, I've switched to a third person narrative, I find it helps me more to get across my characters and their interactions. I've also added more details, so go back and reread the last two chapter before proceeding! I appreciate the followers the story as accumulated so far but remember reviews are good for the soul! I want to know what you think. And now here are some shoutouts:**

**NormalisBoring2716, asia2808, DrunkAliceGoHome, happygirl248, and shay2013, thank you ALL for following! And to ADotAQuestion for the review!**

**As usual, I own nothing but my OC's and leave a review down in the doobly doo!**

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Sadie was proven wrong when Bender continued to try and get a rise out of at least one of the group. First by teasing the dark girl sitting at the back for biting her nails and then by intimidating the boy she knew as 'Johnson' by staring at him in a very uncomfortable manner after the blonde said something that she could have sworn sounded something along the lines of 'I am a walrus', which she couldn't help but giggle at.

Turning to look over her shoulder, she saw how awkward Bender was making the poor boy feel. She was thankful he didn't try that tactic on her because she knew that Bender's stare could be very unsettling and intense, something he knew and took advantage of. After making the blonde boy uncomfortable enough to his satisfaction, he turned to face the girl in the yellow sweater, which made her realize that it was her turn for him to try and intimidate.

It was then she also realized that she had been staring too. Following the Popular's leads, she turned back to face the front of the library to him conversation with him, even when a paper ball came sailing over her left shoulder and landed on her table, she kept composure. Claire and the jock only turned their heads in the brunette's direction to show acknowledgement.

Unhappy with the lack of response he was getting, Bender started humming out loud an unfamiliar song in a very obnoxious manner and playing air guitar.

"I can't believe this is really happening to me." Claire complained. Which earned her a slow blink from Sadie, trying to contain her annoyance.

"Oh, shit! What are we supposed to do if we have to take a piss?" He asked, looking around at everyone. He had been there before, so Sadie figured that he knew exactly what he was supposed to do if they had to take a piss. He just wanted to aggravate everyone even more.

"If you got to go, you got to go." He said before unzipping his fly which she couldn't help but chance a quick glance in the direction of the sound, only to see him press his chest to his table. She turned back around quickly, fighting the blush that was creeping up her neck. She thanked God that his legs were under the table and she couldn't what his hands were doing. She hadn't thought he'd actually take a piss in the library, but still wouldn't have been surprised if he did it.

"Hey, you're not urinating in here, man!" Jock threatened when he saw what Bender was doing.

"Don't talk. Don't talk. It makes it crawl back up."

Okay, there was no use fighting the blush anymore. The jock continued.

"You whip it out, you're dead before the first drop hits the floor."

Bender only looked at him, no concern whatsoever.

"You're pretty sexy when you get angry." Bender growled softly in mock seduction, to which the jock quickly turned around. Bender then turned to Johnson.

"Hey, homeboy, why don't you go close that door? We'll get the babysitter and the prom queen impregnated."

Claire and Sadie turned their heads simultaneously to glare at him. He smirked at the redhead and then turned to the brunette and asked.

"You could use another one, right, Mommy Dearest?"

"Go to hell." She said with quiet anger. Luckily, the jock cut in to draw Bender's attention away from her so no one could see her cheeks blazing once again.

"Hey. Hey!"

"What?" Bender snapped his gaze from Sadie to the other boy.

"If I lose my temper you're totaled, man." The boy said, dead serious.

"Totally?" the criminal mocked.

"Totally." The boy confirmed. He had guts, Sadie was impressed to see him not back down.

"Why don't you shut up? Nobody here's interested." Claire piped up.

"Honestly." Sadie agreed. _That would probably be the only time that she and I would ever agree on anything._

The Jock turned around in his chair but not before calling Bender a butt face, which Sadie was disappointed by the immaturity of, but what can you do?

"Well, hey Sporto. What'd you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?" Bender persisted, not missing a beat.

Johnson piped up, quietly tried to suggest that they all should just write their papers but Sadie was pretty sure she was the only one that heard him and if not, then he was unsurprisingly ignored.

"Just because you live in here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass. So knock it off!" Jock ordered Bender.

"It's a free country."

"He's just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him." Claire told the jock.

"My God, Queenie, is that what we've been trying to do this whole time? I had no idea." Sadie asked in a tone of sarcastic wonderment. She couldn't help it, she had been waiting for a chance to unload her anger towards Claire since the beginning of the school year. She then steeled herself against the glare that Claire sent her, a look that was returned with more force. The vicious looks they shared seemed to last a much longer time then it really was, that being a matter of a few seconds.

"Ladies."

Bender broke their concentration as they both turned to look at him.

"You couldn't ignore me if you tried."

Claire said nothing as she turned away again, Bender than gave Sadie the same smug look he gave the other girl as Sadie scoffed and turned away as well. Both girls determined to prove him wrong.

That didn't turn out to be so easy for Claire because Bender went on to ask if she and the stoic boy she was sitting with were boyfriend and girlfriend. Both of whom looked uncomfortable by his questions and finally when he asked if Sporto "slipped her the hot beef injection?" they snapped

"Go to hell!"  
"Enough!"

A shout came from outside of the library. How could Vernon have not heard that?

"Hey! What's going on in there?"

He was met with silence. As they all waited for him to come charging in, Sadie tensed in her chair, looking to the door and hoped that he wouldn't come in. She didn't need any more detentions, not when she needed Saturdays to pick up extra shifts at the cleaners. After a moment of no movement from his office, she breathed a sigh of relief that was probably a little too loud, as everyone turned to look at her. This was all the motivation Bender needed to continue.

"What do you say we close that door?" he asked, rising from his seat, "We can't have any kind of party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds." He explained, hopping on to the railing next to the preps table.

"You know that door's supposed to stay open." Johnson softly reminded.

"So what?"

Sadie was surprised that the boy wasn't ignored this time.

"So why don't you just shut up?" the jock took over. "There's five other people in here, you know?"

"God, you can count, I knew you had to be smart to be a…wrestler." Bender said, sarcastically.

Sadie then realized why the stoic boy had seemed familiar. She had an unfortunate history with wrestlers. Well, only one really. This particular one was definitely a face she had seen before at a party maybe back in her sophomore year. But she definitely would have remember meeting him officially. She wasn't blind. She could see he was very fit and also attractive, or least he would be if he smiled more. She just silently prayed that he didn't know the boy that had been her wrestler or didn't remember having seen her before at all.

"Who are you to judge anybody anyway?"

"Really?" Claire snickered. Not wanting to be ignored probably. But the preps did have a point that Bender didn't exactly have the right to judge people…but then the jock kept going.

"You know, Bender, you don't even count. If you disappeared forever, it wouldn't make any difference. You may as well not even exist at this school"

Okay, Sadie wouldn't have gone that far. Yeah, thoughts pretty close along those lines did go through Sadie's mind from time to time but she knew that it wouldn't do Bender any good to actually tell him things like that. Despite his obnoxious behavior, she tried to remember to take it in stride and that the way he acted was probably just a front to cover whatever insecurities he refused to share. But she was surprised to see that Bender allowed the others to see him almost hurt by what the other boy said, if only for a second. Perhaps he wasn't as good an actor as he thought he was. She wondered briefly if she should speak up and defend him. But he got his bearings quickly and continued.

"Well I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team. Maybe the prep club, too. Student council." He said jovially.

Sadie then smiled to herself, he certainly didn't need her help against the other two. The preps only laughed.

"No, they wouldn't take you."

"I'm hurt"

"You know what guys like you knock everything." Claire said.

"Oh, this should be stunning."

It was at this point that Sadie decided she was bored of the bickering, she wasn't a part of this conversation anyway. Between school, work, and caring for her family; she definitely didn't belong to any clubs. Clubs were a waste of time and ultimately didn't matter. So she reached into her bag to look for something to occupy her time and take her mind off the others, since they had less than nine hours to try and entertain themselves. Looking into her bag, she considered her options. There was her sketchbook, a copy of _A Streetcar Named Desire_, and also her Walkman.

While Bender and Claire continued to argue, she eliminated the first two options of catching up on her drawings for her art class and reading the play she needed to finish for English. She wasn't in the mood to sketch and the second option was eliminated because she just knew that Stanley Kowalski would remember her of Bender, thus defeating her purpose. She was in no mood to compare the two…

She took out the cassette that her friend Beth let her borrow because she swore to God that Sadie would like but considering her friends taste in music though, Sadie didn't have high hopes. The album was called 'Bella Donna'. She put the cassette in and set the Walkman in her lap. Placing the headphones over her ears, the last thing she heard before pressing 'Play' was Johnson saying:

"I'm in the Math Club."

After that, all sound the others were making was drowned out by the keys of a piano, followed shortly by a guitar and finally the vocals came in. A female voice. Husky and haunting.

_You can ride_

_High atop your pony_

_I know you won't fall_

_'Cause the whole thing's phoney_

_You can fly swinging_

_From your trapeze_

_Scaring all the people_

_But you'll never scare me_

_My bella donna_

_And we fight for the Northern Star_

Sadie was captivated, she was sure she had heard this voice before but the woman's name wasn't familiar at all. Regardless, she liked this song at least. It wasn't what she was normally into but it was so calming. She felt her body relax and begin to slouch, and eventually she placed her folded arms on the table and rested her chin on her hands. Completely oblivious to the others.

"Well, I don't know any lepers either but I'm not going to run and join on of their fucking clubs." Bender said to Claire's remark that he didn't know any of the activities people, so he had no right to judge them.

"Hey, let's watch the mouth, huh?" the stoic boy warned.

"I'm in the Physics Club, too." Johnson persisted, eager to be a part of the conversation. Bender complied and turned to him.

"Excuse me a sec. What are you babbling about?" He asked before noticing in the corner of his eye that the girl with the braid was not paying attention at all, she was actually listening to music and seemed to be dozing off with her head on the table. This bothered him more than he cared to admit. Instead, he focused on the nerd.

"Well, what I said was that I'm in the Math Club, the Latin Club, and the Physics Club. Physics Club." Johnson stammered while Bender chanced another glance at Pruett.

He realized that he also didn't care for how Pruett's sweater slid off her shoulder, revealing a black bra strap. Mouth suddenly dry, he swallowed hard and decided it was better to not look at her right now, he had a point to prove at the moment.

"Hey, Cherry. Do you belong to the Physics Club.?" He asked, leaning in the redhead's direction.

"That's an academic club." She stated it like it wasn't obvious.

"So?"

"So academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs."

"Ah, but to dorks like him, they are." He then turned to Sadie "What about you, Pigtail? Do you belong to the physics club… or a knitting circle?" he raised his voice a bit, so she'd might hear him.

Everyone turned to see what her reaction would be. Only to be surprised that she didn't seem to have heard Bender at all. She just sat calmly with her head bobbing ever so slightly to the beat. Her eyes staring blankly into the space ahead of her, never noticing that everyone else's eyes were on her now. A little irritated at her lack of response, Bender turned back to the nerd to continue the conversation.

"What do you guys do in your club?"

"In physics, well, we talk about physics. Properties of physics."

"So it's sort of social. Demented and sad but social, right?"

"I guess you could consider it a social situation. I mean, there are other children in my club. And at the end of the year, we have…we have a big banquet at the Hilton."

"You load up, you party."

"No. We get dressed up, but we don't get high."

"Only burners like you get high."

"And I didn't have any shoes, so I had to borrow my dad's. It's weird because my mom doesn't like me to wear other people's shoes. My cousin Kent…my cousin Kendall from Indiana, he got high once. And, you know he started eating, like, really weird foods. Then he felt like he didn't belong anywhere, kind of like the Twilight Zone, kind of."

Johnson had begun to speak louder to keep the others attention desperately, as if he were to stop talking, he would disappear. And because of that, it was at this point that Sadie caught the end of Johnson's statement. _What the heck did I miss?_ With her gaze still focused towards the front, she discreetly reached down to pause the next song that began and started listening to the conversation. Never moving or giving any indication that she was now more or less eavesdropping. She had the rest of detention to return to this awesome song…

"Look you guys keep up your talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here. I got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads." The jock complained

"Oh, and wouldn't that bite? Missing a whole wrestling meet?" Bender mocked.

"You wouldn't know anything about it, faggot. You never competed in your whole life."

"Oh, I know. I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys who roll around on the floor with other guys." Did he ever say anything without the mocking tone, she wondered with a roll of her eyes.

"You'd never miss it. You don't have any goals."

"Oh, but I do, yeah. I want to be just like you. I figure all I need's a lobotomy and some tights."

"You wear tights?" Johnson asked curiously.

"No, I don't wear tights. I wear the required uniform." Jock snapped.

"Tights." Johnson confirmed. Sadie had to bite her lips to keep in the giggle that wanted to escape and give away her ruse. The only one to notice her shoulders shaking in amusement was the dark girl sitting in the back, who silently observed the others with an amused smirk as she began to draw.

"Shut up."

A bit defensive, isn't he? Though considering he was a wrestler, it wasn't surprising, it should be natural for him by now to be always on the defense, ready to lash out if needed.

A sound from Vernon's office sent Bender flying into the seat between Jock and Claire but Vernon's retreating footsteps had him up again in seconds. When he got up, after harassing the preps first of course, he started walking to the door.

"There's not supposed to be any monkey business." Johnson warned Bender, who only turned around, still heading for the door and pointed at the younger boy.

"Young man, have you finished your paper?" he chastised before turning around and popping the collar of his jean jacket. He quickly look into the hallway before reaching for the top of the door. Sadie gave up her little act and took her headphones off to show that she was now paying attention. She didn't know what he was doing but she knew that it would lead to no good.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.

"C'mon Bender. Don't screw around." Jock threatened.

"What are you gonna do?" Claire asked.

"Drop dead, I hope."

Bender said nothing as he continued to take the screws out of the hinges of the door! Why he would do that, Sadie didn't know and she wondered at the sheer stupidity. He was practically asking for Vernon to kill him. Why would he want that?

"Bender, that's school property there, and it doesn't belong to us. It's not something to be toyed with." Johnson continued to try and reason with Bender, but it was useless. The door shut as Bender rushed back to his seat while pocketing the screws he had taken.

"That's very funny. Fix it." Jock ordered.

"You should really fix it that." Agreed Johnson.

"Am I genius?" asked the rebel.

"No, you're an asshole."

Sadie couldn't help but silently agree.

"What a funny guy."

"Fix the door, Bender!" the jock continued to insist.

"Everyone just 'shhhh'…! Listen, I've been here before, I know what I'm doing."

"No. Fix the door!"

"Shut up!" Bender all but screamed.

"God damn it!" came a new voice from outside.

All of the teenagers froze and faced the now closed door in fear and anticipation, bracing themselves. _'God damn it' is right_, Sadie thought, feeling her stomach drop,

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**FUN FACT: I'll be the assistant costume designer for my schools production of Streetcar Named Desire this fall, I'll be assisting my professor, so that's where I got the idea to include this because I saw similarities between Stanley and John, Streetcar will make an appearance in one of the coming chapters, so it will be significant.**

**I know this is late, I'm designing costumes for a show at my school so I've been in rehearsals for the last two weeks, but I hope to get back on track in the next week or so, which should be easier to stay on once my semester is up in a few weeks.**

**I did proofread and edit but if I missed anything, like misspellings or bad grammar, let me know so I can fix it!**


	4. Chip?

**A/N: Hey, I'm hoping to get back on track once my semester ends, which is only less than 3 weeks from now, so once my vacation comes, you can expect consistent updates. Just so you know. Also, if you are wondering, I am definitely going keep the story going after detention is over, we'll see what happens Monday and afterwards. Word limit for each chapter will be 3000-4000.**

**FYI If anyone is wondering, Sadie's last name is pronounced 'Prue-IT"**

**Shoutouts: Thank you to Childhood Enigma for favoriting and following me as a writer as well as favoriting and following this story. Major brownie points and hugs for you! Thanks sbolzzz for the review! A hug for you as well. And to Shaggz for favoriting! And to Gabrielle Avis and LuciferAndTheSkyFullOfDemons for following!**

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Sadie quickly yanked the headphones from around her neck and placed them on her lap, then concealed her legs under the table to hide it. Vernon came charging in, like the bull he had described himself as earlier.

"Why is that door closed? " He demanded and was met with silence, everyone looking down at their tables, hands folded.

"Why is that door closed?" he demanded again.

"How are we supposed to know? We're not supposed to move, right?" Bender asked innocently. Vernon looked to Claire.

"Why?"

"We're just sitting here like we're supposed to." She sheepishly replied. Vernon moved on to Johnson, to see if he would be the one to break.

"Who closed that door?"

"I think a screw fell out of it"

Sadie spun her head towards Bender for what felt like the hundredth time that morning. Did he want to get caught? He might as well have had a giant neon sign above his head, flashing the words 'I did it!" He looked up at her with glaring eyes, examining her face to see if she'd rat him out. She slightly shook her head 'no' before turning away. The corner of his mouth twitched up.

"It just closed, sir" Andrew said. Sadie only stiffly nodded in agreement when Vernon looked to her.

"Who?"

This time, Vernon was attacking the girl in the back. As everyone turned to look as her, she squeaked, bit her lip, and almost slammed her face into her table, the hood of her coat falling to conceal her head. Sadie would have found this funny if she hadn't been concerned that the girl might have hurt herself.

"She doesn't talk, sir." Bender explained, turning away,

Then came a squeak to agree with him. Vernon ignored her.

"Give me that screw."

"I don't have it." Bender shrugged.

"You want me to yank you out of that seat and shake it out of you?"

"I don't have it. Screws fall out all the time. The worlds an imperfect place."

"Give it to me, Bender."

"Excuse me, sir. Why would anybody want to steal a screw?" Claire asked.

Sadie was surprised to see that the preps weren't going to snitch on Bender. At least, not right in front of him, that would be beyond stupid.

"Watch it, young lady."

Vernon briskly walked to the door, grabbing a nearby folding chair to try and prop it open. Sadie normally had healthy respect for most of her teachers but she couldn't help be struck by how idiotic Vernon's idea was.

"The doors way too heavy, sir". Bender said, the voice for all their thoughts. As it seemed to be the case.

Once Vernon had the chair positioned as he liked, he removed his foot from the bottom of the door and finally placed his hands on his hips. As if proud of his accomplishment. Until the door slammed shut. The sound of the chair flying across the floor and Vernon's frustrated yell as he probably took his anger out on it. No one could help but snicker at the Principal. Vernon back in.

"Damn it! Andrew Clark, get up here. Come on. Front and center. Let's go."

Andrew Clark. That was his name, Sadie remembered now. She definitely met him once, briefly, at a party the previous year. Andy, his friends called him and she couldn't help but wonder if he was still close with Rob, her ex. She also wondered again if he remembered meeting her at all. Andrew sighed and begrudgingly did as Vernon told him.

"Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up we'll all get up. It'll be anarchy! It's out of my hands." Vernon then told Andrew to move the nearby magazine rack to prop the door open, which made Bender continue as both the teenager and adult lifted the heavy piece of furniture. And having a very difficult time of it, Sadie noticed it. Once the rack was in the doorway, Andrew tried to get back in by stepping over the rack but he slipped and fell against the rack, making a mess. Sadie almost panicked when she thought for a second that he may have really hurt himself but he got back up, and she relaxed.

"That's very clever, sir, but what if there's a fire? I think violating fire codes and endangering the lives of children would be unwise at this juncture in your career, sir." He stated, giving Johnson a pointed look at the word 'children'.

Vernon seemed to realize that Bender was right because he instantly shifted gears and started ordering Andrew to move the rack again, refusing to allow the criminal to embarrass him further. It was actually pathetic on the Principals part really.

"All right. What are you doing with this? Get this out of here, for God's sake. What's the matter with you? Come on!"

"You know the school comes equipped with the fire exits at either end of the library." Johnson piped up, using his hands to motion the said doors as if her was a flight attendant.

"Show Dick some respect" Bender barked.

"Let's go. Go. Get back in your seat." Vernon lightly shoved Andrew back to his seat, once the boy was sitting, he continued. "I expected a little more from a varsity letterman." As if propping the door open with the rack had been Andrew's dumb idea.

Andrew looked angered by what the man said but he kept control and stoically composed, rubbing his hands together, the only thing he could do with them. Sadie felt bad for him, he only did what he was told, and it wasn't his fault that Vernon's idea was stupid.

Bender may have been a pain but Vernon was just pure agony. She disliked the man more and more with every word he said. If he cared so damn much about whether or not they behaved, why didn't he actually sit in the library with them to keep them under control? Because he was stuck, just like them. And would rather be anywhere else but at the school on a Saturday. But the difference was that he could do whatever he wanted here and they were basically at his mercy. It wasn't fair. He didn't give a shit about any kid at this school and that was the reason why he shouldn't have been allowed to have so much power over them. Sadie crossed her arms, slouched in her seat, and glared back at the man in the bad suit.

It just wasn't fair.

"Excuse me, sir. He was only doing what you asked him to." Sadie spoke up quietly, carefully trying to keep any distaste out of her voice. All the other teenagers looked to her in surprise, none more surprise than Andrew of course

"Pipe down, Pruett…And you're not fooling anybody, Bender. The next screw that falls out is gonna be you."

Bender only grumbled under his breath.

"What was that?" He demanded, walking up to Bender's table.

"Eat my shorts." He over enunciated, looking Vernon in the eye this time. Christ, what was it between these two? Why couldn't Bender leave well enough alone?

"You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister."

"Oh, I'm crushed." Bender sighed in feigned hurt.

"You just bought one more right there."

"Well, I'm free the Saturday after that. Beyond that, I'll have to check my calendar."

"Good! Because it's gonna be filled. We'll keep going. You want another one? Say the word. Just say the word. Instead of going to prison, you'll come here. Are you through?"

"No."

"I'm doing society a favor"

"So?"

Back and forth and back and forth between them, seeing who would give up and break. Both were putting up a good fight. But Sadie knew it was no use, what could they or he possibly do to beat Vernon?

"That's another one right now. I've got you for the rest of your natural born life if you don't watch your step. You want another one?"

"Bender, knock it off." Sadie warned in a low voice. She looked at him with a pleading look in her eyes. He saw that she was trying to help him and this only motivated him even more.

"Yes" he snapped at Vernon.

"You got it! You got another one right there. That's another, _pal_."

"You through?"

"Not even close_, bud._"

"Good, you got one more right there."

"You really think I give a shit?"

"Another. You through?"

"How many is that?"

"That's seven, including the one when you asked Mr. Vernon here whether Barry Manilow knew he raided his closet" Johnson answered.

"Now it's eight. You stay out of it."

"Excuse me, sir. It's seven."

"Shut up, peewee."

"Don't call him that!" Sadie snapped suddenly.

Everyone looked at her again in surprise, except for Bender, who just rolled his eyes, he knew that this was probably just some motherly instinct that made her want to defend the weak. The dweeb should stand up for himself.

In all honestly though, made her angry to hear a teacher talk to a student that way, the man obviously knew nothing about how to deal with people younger than he was. She may not have always gotten it right, but she knew that you didn't get the results you wanted by name calling. But she also wanted her own chance to stand up to Vernon.

But while she was wrapped up in her frustration, she forgotten about the hidden Walkman that was sitting in her lap. She had fully turned her body around in her seat to face Vernon and in the quickness of her actions, the device slid from her lap and clattered on to the floor.

"Stay out of this, Pruett!" Vernon barked at the precise moment the Walkman fell. He turned to look for where the noise came from, his eyes looking to the floor and landing on the device that now sat at the girl's feet. Everyone else looked as well

"What is this?" he snarled, leaning down and snatching the Walkman up before Sadie could get to it in time, she could only look at Vernon with narrowed eyes as she blushed intensely "You'll just have to do without this for the foreseeable future, won't you, Pruett? Until you learn that detention is _supposed_ to _detain_ you from the things you'd rather be doing." He growled viciously in her face before turning back to Bender.

He had seem more frustrated that she distracted him from his tirade towards Bender, than the fact that she wasn't doing nothing like he had told them to. Vernon obviously wanted to take only Bender down because Sadie and Johnson had either interjected or talked back to him. And Sadie had been sure that he would have added another detention to her record, but he didn't. He wasn't adding on more detentions for any of them. Bender was the one he wanted. Did the man have a vendetta of some sort, for goodness sake?

"You're mine, Bender. For two months, I got you. I got you."

"What can I say? I'm thrilled"

"Oh, I'm sure that's exactly what you want these people to believe. You know something? You ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with yourself and a little less time trying to impress people. You might be better off. All right. That's it! I'm gonna be right outside those doors. The next time I have to come in here, I'm cracking skulls!" He threatened before stalking out of the library All the while Sadie stared at her Walkman with longing as she watched Vernon carry it out with him, she had no idea when she'd be seeing it again which was the worst part.

As and as soon as the door shut behind him, Bender yelled:

"Fuck you!"

Surprisingly, Vernon did not return though he was sure to have heard it but maybe like them, he need a break from this ridiculous fighting.

"Fuck" Bender whispered to himself, obviously regretting his actions.

A moment of awkward silence passed before Sadie felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She looked around to the boy in the green sweater shirt.

"Hey, umm, thanks. That was cool, what you said." He said nervously, loud enough for only Sadie to hear while he was having trouble making eye contact. Sadie only smiled at his shyness. She had been right when she suspected that he was sweet.

"No problem. I'm sure you have a first name and that it isn't 'peewee', right?" She said. He chuckled in spite of his nervousness. You'd think the poor boy had never spoken to a girl before, or to anyone for that matter.

"No, it's Brian." He smiled, really looking in her eyes for the first time.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Brian."

"And it's nice to meet you, Pru-, uh, I mean, what is your firs-?"

"Sadie."

"Nice to meet you too, Sadie."

With that she turned back around to see Andrew staring at her. He was scrutinizing her with those cold blue eyes and it was disconcerting, looking her over as if she was an enemy that he was inspecting for potential threat. Beyond that, she had no idea what could possibly be going through his head. Finally, after coming to whatever conclusion he had reached in his mind, he spoke.

"Thanks." He said with no real hint of gratitude before looking away.

Yes, he definitely remembered who she was.

Looking to the clock on the back wall, to see it was only 7:45, she groaned. It hadn't even been a full hour yet, this would be long day…

Once everyone had settled down, with hardly any movement and completely, something occurred to Sadie that she had failed to notice before Vernon left. She would have company for the next two Saturdays while she did her time in here.

Fuck.

Sad that she had lost her music, she settled for reading the dumb play, she was still on only on scene one, right when Stanley entered to meet Blanche for the first time and Sadie of course began there. The following phrases used in the stage directions to describe the Brando barbarian only made her stomach drop further and further and her annoyance grow more and more. _Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes…pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens…He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual characteristics, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them. _

Sighing in aggravation, she tossed the book aside and quickly peaked at Bender, who was now lighting his cigarette with the flaming sole of his shoe. Tennessee Williams hit the nail right on the head, god damn it. If she had seen him do this in her freshman year, she would have been so attracted to him at that moment and would be secretly pining for him. But she had grown out that, of that she was sure. There was nothing more to John Bender than what she saw right now.

After putting out the flame with his hand, he glanced up at her and caught her looking at him. She narrowed her eyes and turned away, yes, definitely had grown out of it.

He only grinned wolfishly, she was a bitch but he wanted to see how tough she really was, to see if he could get under that pale skin again. Target acquired.

* * *

In order to take her mind off of the irritating people around her, she began to scribble a grocery list on the paper Vernon had handed out. Slouching in her chair and propping her head up with her arm as she wrote.

_Toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, tampons, bread, milk…_

Silence continued to pervade the air, as each member of detention found ways to quietly entertain themselves. Sadie wasn't sure about what the others were doing but she continued to add necessary items to her list and was thinking of the visit from the social worker on Monday.

Karen said she'd be home by Sunday and she sure as hell wouldn't have the time to detox and convince the social worker that she wasn't using anymore. She had been caught before and she was on probation, she didn't have many chances left before Sadie and the rest of her children were taken and divided amongst a number of foster homes. Sadie would be eighteen in November, so she wasn't worried for herself but for Sophie and especially for Jude and Jeremy. Jeremy was so little and fragile, she wouldn't be able to protect him. Jude could never handle it, it would only drive him further down the road he seem to be headed down. To a dark place that Sadie feared and silently prayed that she was just over exaggerating

There were times where she even fantasied about filing for custody for her siblings once she turned eighteen. She wasn't sure if that was possible or how she'd be able to accomplish that but with every passing day it seem like a more realistic idea, she was starting to think that she should probably begin looking into that...

As she got lost in her own thoughts, she was unaware that she was no longer writing. Soon, her eyes began to droop though she struggled to stay awake, she inevitably lowered her head to the table and let a dreamless sleep take over.

"Wake up!"

Sadie's eyes fluttered opened but otherwise, didn't move. It felt as if no time had passed since she had gone to sleep and she was a little saddened by that.

"Who has to go to the lavatory?"

If she had been looking at any of the others, she would have seen five hands shoot into the air the same instant she raised hers.

* * *

"Men, you got two minutes. Ladies, you got three. Move it!" Vernon ordered once he had led them all down the hall to the bathrooms. The group divided and went into their respective rooms.

Sadie, Claire, and the quiet girl each walked straight into each of their stalls without a single word. Sadie was the first to come out of her stall and as she was washing her hands Claire came out to stand at the sink next to Sadie's. Ignoring the redhead who was touching up her makeup, Sadie inspected her own appearance. She readjusted her sweater when she noticed that her bra strap was showing. Some of the shorter strands of her hair had come loose in her sleep, so pulling her hair tie off the braid, she started to redo it.

Claire glanced at her, seeing the other girl's hair down for the first time, only to begin to part it three ways to braid it again.

"You know you'd look better if you just left it down." Claire commented nonchalantly.

"When I want beauty tips from you, I'll ask for it." Sadie snapped.

"Whatever, have it your way, _Pigtail_." Claire huffed and rolled her eyes at the other girl's rejection while Sadie only raised her eyebrow at the nickname. Was that supposed to mean something? Judging by the way Claire emphasized the word, it made her think so. But she was distracted from her train of thought when she heard a crunching noise coming from one of the stalls.

Both girls at the sink looked at each other and then to the visible feet under the stall door. What was the quiet girl _doing_ in there? Claire walked over to investigate. Gently pushing on the door, it swung open to reveal the dark girl sitting and eating from a potato chip bag. Claire wrinkled her nose in disgust before voicing her displeasure with a groan. Turning on the heels of her Ralph Lauren boots, she walked right out.

Shrugging off the potato chip incident, Sadie looked in the mirror again. Damn it, Claire had been right. She ran her hands through her hair to loosen it and fluff it, it feel in wild waves down past her shoulder blades. She usually kept it in a braid so that wouldn't get in the way but she could now feel her vanity urging her to leave it alone. Running her fingers through it one final time, she noticed in the mirror that the quiet girl was now standing behind her. She was giving Sadie a penetrating stare that make her feel self-conscious, like the girl could see right inside and through people. It was truly unsettling.

"What?'' she asked defensively. "Have you never seen a hypocrite before?"

The girl said nothing, which made Sadie even more uncomfortable. After regarding Sadie for a few seconds, the girl suddenly held out her opened end of the bag of chips towards Sadie. Eyeing her suspiciously, Sadie gingerly reach inside to accommodate her and pulled a chip out. Before she could even open her mouth in thanks, the girl walked out.

Well, that was weird.

"Pruett! Get it together and hurry up!" Vernon barked from outside the door.

Popping the chip in her mouth and glancing in the mirror one last time, she walked out.

* * *

**That final scene was inspired by a deleted scene. The virgin conversations are coming soon. I have a question for all of you. Do you think Andrew is a virgin? Allison, Brian, and Claire admit to being virgins. Bender is most likely not, he never says anything definitively but let's be honest, I don't think anyone believes he is. But what about Andrew? Share your thoughts in the comments!**


	5. Virgin or Whore

**A/n: Hey guys, I had hoped to just breeze through the detention in a few chapters but that won't be happening, not for how I want to tell the story and set up what happens afterwards, but I will be going beyond Saturday, if I didn't already say that before. Fun fact: I got a TBC tee from Hot Topic yesterday, it's white with the shot of Bender posing at the end of the movie. I'm going back soon to get a few band tees and another TBC shirt I saw. So I'm excited! **

**Shoutouts: Thanks to LeeOfHermes0330, IJustWannaBeAHero, kida30821, and Domino2 for following and favoriting and to helinahandcart for the review! To OhBeClever and embermoonlight for following! Remember that reviews feed the soul!**

* * *

Walking back to the library, Sadie ignored the looks from the rest of the group, particularly Claire's smug smirk and the approving once overs from the guys. Brian blushed and glanced away once she caught him staring. Andrew only raised his eyebrows and nodded in a manner that suggested he was impressed but not terribly impressed.

Bender, on the other hand, made no effort to hide his approval as he walked alongside her down the hall. Letting his gaze travel from her long dark hair, now which now framed her pale face, and down her body very slowly. Too bad that damn sweater hid what he knew to be a soft, slender body, with the right curves where they were needed.

Once his eyes met hers again, she responded with her usual glare which he returned with a half lidded stare and the smallest of smirks with which made her uncomfortable. But maybe also a little flattered, something she wouldn't dare show him. _I didn't do this for you, it's just hair for God's sake_; she wanted to yell. Instead she tried to focus on her grocery list, mentally adding items and planning her next trip to Happy Foods, trying to forget how uncomfortable she was

Considering the impending visit from the social worker on Monday and how the house hardly had any food in it at the moment, she would have to go the next day. Hopefully she could find her mom's work ID so she could get the employee discount but honestly, shouldn't Karen be the one using her ID and buying the groceries. No, she'd rather shoot up with her boyfriend.

Self-righteous indignation filled Sadie as she blocked out everyone else around her, blindly following Vernon back to the library. But then she remembered her little fantasy about magically gaining custody, only for the first time, she wondered the legitimate possibility of such a plan. Was it possible to actually do it?

When Vernon dropped them off at the library, it was 10:15 and once the Principal headed back to his office, Sadie went straight for the card catalog instead of returning to her seat like the others. She felt the eyes on her back as she pulled out a drawer simply labeled 'I'. Letting the unwanted cards pass through her fingers without a second glance, she was unaware of the presence that confidently sauntered up to her left side.

She jumped when a gloved hand shot past her face and gripped the handle of the drawer above the one she had pulled out. She turned and looked up to find that Bender was standing very close to her now, looking pleased at catching her off guard. Who else would it be? When she was now longer startled, she realized how close he was standing, which caused a new kind of discomfort. His head only had to duck a few inches and then they would have been nose to nose. Collecting her bearings, she put on the haughtiest expression she could muster.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can move." He said, smirking at her reaction while jerking his head to the drawer where his hand was now resting. With a very irritated and very audible sigh, she stepped aside.

"Excuse me." He said, drawing out the 'u' sound, before taking the drawer out and walking away to sit on the librarian's desk without a second glance in her direction. Shaking of her discomfort, she continued in her search, disregarding the fact that his only purpose in coming over was to scare her.

It didn't take long for the other two boys to shift to the other side of the room with the rest of the group, looking over her shoulder, she saw that Brian was now standing next the pylon between herself and the front desk. Andrew was using the ramp between Bender and Claire to stretch. The dark girl had gone straight back to her seat without a single word, unsurprisingly. Honestly, it wasn't difficult to forget she was even there, an observation which made Sadie sad for some reason.

It was obvious she wanted to be left alone, as she said nothing and sat so far away from everyone else. But Sadie thought back to the little potato chip scene in the bathroom, now it seemed like the girl had been giving some kind of peace offering or an offer of potential friendship, as if Sadie had passed a test she didn't know that she was taking, however strange it was. Sadie couldn't help but wonder what the odd girl had done to be in detention.

The girl must have felt Sadie staring because she looked up from her drawing, her sharp brown eyes meeting Sadie's gaze. Giving the girl a small smile, Sadie turned back to the cards, missing the slightly stunned expression on the strange girls face at the acknowledgement of her presence.

Sadie would have found her card sooner, if she were not distracted by the sound of paper ripping. Turning her head in the direction of the noise, she saw Bender holding a book, now flinging the ripped pages into the air, landing in a scattered mess. Sadie's annoyance was the initial reaction and as she was sick of his antics and feeling this way, she instead tried to focus on her search and ignore him, which was no small feat.

"That's real intelligent." Andrew's voice broke the silence

"You're right. It's wrong to destroy literature, such fun to read and, Molay really pumps my nads."

"Moliere."

Like Bender, Sadie couldn't help but look at Claire. It would seem that the popular girl, who looked prettier in pink than a redhead had any right to be, had a brain after all.

"I love his work." Brian said, trying to jump in on the conversation, this only got him a bunch of ripped pages thrown in his direction from an annoyed Bender.

"Big deal. Nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy." Bender said in a bored tone.

"Speak for yourself." Andrew said.

"Do you think I'd speak for you? I don't even know your language."

_Christ, not this again._

Andrew thankfully didn't respond to Bender's bait and turned to Claire.

"Hey, you grounded tonight?"

"I don't know. My mom said I was. My dad told me just to blow her off."

Andrew glanced at a silent and now pissed Bender, making it clear he wouldn't receive an offer of invitation to the party Andrew was about to mention. Andrew now would be the one throwing the bait. The rebel now was mixing up the cards of the drawer he pulled a little more forcefully than necessary as Andrew spoke.

"There's a big party at Stubby's. His parents are in Europe. It should be pretty wild."

"Yeah?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, are you gonna go?"

At the mention of the jock's friend, Sadie froze for a second and looked at Andrew, who then looked over to Sadie, watching for her reaction to Stubby's name. Bender followed the jock's stare to see what he was now looking at and the look that Pruett and Sporto shared certainly piqued his interest. He wondered if there was some history there, maybe it wasn't Cherry that Sporto was bumping uglies with. This was a thought that only proved to darken his mood as he continued to jam handfuls of the wrong cards into the drawer. This whole exchange went unnoticed by Claire.

"I doubt it." She shrugged.

"How come?" Andrew continued, breaking eye contact with Sadie.

"Well, cause if I do what my mother tells me not to do, it's because my father says its okay. It's like this whole, big monster deal. It's endless. It's a total drag. It's like any minute, divorce. "

_Been there, Sweetheart._ Sadie thought to herself before finding the card she hoped would help. It simply said, "Illinois state law", with an accompanying list of numbered books on the subject. Walking out of earshot of the conversation, she started searching for the first book listed on the card, knowing exactly where to start.

The books she needed turned out to be placed on the table behind the statue at the center of the library, not far from the dark girl's table. Once she had walked up to the table, she began scanning the titles, searching for the right one and once she pulled out the desired volume, a yell jerked her out of her thoughts.

"HA!" the dark girl had shouted, which only caused everyone else to stare. While most looked confused or surprised, the smile on Andrew's face didn't go unnoticed by her or Sadie.

"Shut up." Claire commanded.

"You're just feeling sorry for yourself." Andrew said. Sadie smirked, knowing the cause of his change in tune towards Claire, siding with the dark girl against the redhead on whatever it was they were talking about now.

"Yeah, well if I didn't, nobody else would."

Sadie, who began walking to back to her seat with her book, scoffed and chuckled loudly in spite of herself. This earned her a glare from Claire, something Sadie could only smile at.

"Aw, you're breaking my heart." Andrew turned away from her.

"Sporto?" Bender quipped.

"What?"

Bender carelessly threw the card drawer over his shoulder, which clattered and spilled to the floor, as he slid off the desk.

"You get along with your parents?"

"Well, if I say yes, I'm an idiot, right?"

Bender hopped over the railing before getting in Andrew's face. It was a the point Sadie had returned to her seat and was once again engrossed in the conversation, the book on the table in front of her was now forgotten for the moment.

"You're an idiot anyway. But if you say you get along with your parents, well, you're a liar, too." Bender said with finality before walking away past Claire without looking at her. Sadie was slightly surprised that Bender would come to Claire's defense but then again, Bender had a reputation as a player and the flirtatious looks Claire had sent him were plain for anyone to see, so actually, it wasn't so surprising. If that was the case though, why was he now walking towards her table?

Or else it seemed like he was before Andrew came up from behind him and pushed him. Breaking eye contact with Sadie, Bender faced the jock, ready for a fight. Brian trailed behind Andrew to referee, it seemed.

"You know something, man? If we weren't in school right now, I'd waste you."

_What's stopping you? Vernon wouldn't give a damn if you beat the shit out of John Bender, of all people._

"Can you hear this? You want me to turn it up?"

Sadie had to look around him to see that he was now giving Andrew the finger. Brian came to stand by the two boys, resting hands on both of their shoulders, trying to break up the potential fight.

"Hey, fellows, I mean…"

Both boys slapped his hands away.

"I don't like my parents, either, I mean, I don't…"

Andrew pushed past him as if the nerd wasn't there and went sit on the table next to the dark girl's. He, looking lost in thought, didn't seem to notice the strange girl was openly staring at him searching for something unknown in his face.

"I don't get along with them. Their idea of parental compassion is just, you know, wacko, you know."

"Dork."

"Yeah."

Sadie closed her eyes in disappointment at Brian answering to that name, not unlike when Andrew answered to 'Sporto', his own label. But in Brian's case, she didn't like to see anyone unable to fight back and had been forced into submission. She had only just met him but even though he seemed like a very nice kid and a kind soul, he obviously didn't have any confidence or fight in him, or else he wouldn't just take insults from people like Vernon or Bender. She wanted to see him stand up for himself.

Maybe any spark he had had been squashed by his family. Then she couldn't help but wonder if everyone here had assholes for parents.

"You are a parent's wet dream, okay?" Bender stated, patting Brian on the arm before he sat on Bender's table, who turned away from him.

"That's the problem."

"Look, I can see you getting all bunged up for them making you wear these kind of clothes, but face it, you're a neo-maxi-zoon-dweebie."

What the hell? That was a new one she hadn't heard. She looked at Bender with a mix of frustration and confusion.

"What would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"

"Why do you have to insult everybody?" Andrew asked as Brian hung his head.

"I'm being honest asshole. I would expect _you _to know the difference."

"Yeah, well, he's got a name."

"Yeah"

"Yeah?"

"What's your name?" Andrew asked Brian.

"Brian." Was the meek reply.

"See?"

"My condolences." Bender said before walking away,

"What's your name?" Claire asked. Bender stopped walking to look at her.

"What's yours?"

"Claire."

"Kuh-laire?" He sounded out, unimpressed.

"Claire. It's a family name. "She defended.

"Oh, it's a fat girl's name. "

"Oh, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I'm not fat. "

"Well not at present, but I can see you really pushing maximum density. See I'm not sure if you know this, but there are two kinds of fat people: there's fat people that were born to be fat, and there's fat people that were once thin but they became fat... so when you look at 'em you can sorta see that thin person inside. You see, you're gonna get married, you're gonna squeeze out a few puppies and then, uh..." Bender then proceeded to make a noise that resembled a person blowing up like a balloon. To which Claire gave him the middle finger.

Sadie suddenly felt vindicated as she remembered the insults that Claire and her friends aimed at her in the locker room in when they had gym together the previous year.

Back then she had been a little heavier because of the type of birth control she was using, a fact that no one was aware of. Certain phrases came to mind as she remembered just why she disliked the princess and her clique so much, such as, "Do you leave footprints in concrete?" and "When God said 'let there be light', he was telling you to move your ass out of the way."

Claire Standish could eat shit. And her own words.

"Oh, obscene finger gestures for such a pristine girl." Bender said.

"I'm not that pristine." Claire huffed. Bender sunk down to her eye level.

"Are you a virgin? I'll bet you a million dollars that you are. Let's end the suspense! Is it gonna be... a white wedding? "Bender drew his questions out, giving her that searching intense stare that looked right into her.

"Why don't you just shut up?" Claire snapped a little too quickly.

"Have you ever kissed a boy on the mouth?"

Claire didn't answer and Sadie, who was enjoying Claire's discomfort as much as Bender was, perked up at the sound of those familiar words. She waited and quietly continued to listen, forcing her eyes to look away from the other two and stay on the table in front of her.

"Have you ever been felt up? Over the bra, under the blouse, shoes off... hoping to God your parents don't walk in?"

Bender certainly had Sadie's attention now, she felt the anger flush her face and heat her skin. The prick had a whole routine, didn't he? He had perfected it to a science, talking to girls this way. Claire looked uncomfortable but she seemed to be trying her best to hold her own against Bender. _Useless,_ Sadie thought. Maybe she'd have better luck…

"Do you want me to puke?" Claire responded weakly.

"You're disgusting." Sadie said with genuine repulsion. She had been unable to stop herself before actually thinking of what would happen, going toe to toe with Bender on this subject, but she knew that it was too late to do anything now. She steeled herself as Bender turned his intense gaze to her.

"You, on the other hand, ain't so innocent, are you?" he snarled with mutual distaste. As he sauntered over to her, her stomach felt as if it had dropped to her knees. He came over and sank down to her level in the same manner, the same penetrating stare her used on Claire that made her want to squirm.

"How about you answer the question on everyone's mind? Just how many friends of Sporto, here, have you mounted? Or gotten down on your knees for?" he whispered in a husky voice, savoring every word slowly and teasingly, all in a manner that was very seductive.

She refused to answer. However effective his method was, she refused to play his game. It was none of his business and the truth wouldn't have satisfied him anyway. His dark almost black eyes bore into her lighter brown ones as he waited for the answer she fought hard not to give, her gaze as unwavering as his.

The tension between them could have been cut with a knife, and they weren't the only ones who felt it as Claire and Brian exchanged uncomfortable glances with each other, as they were honestly curious to know that answer as well. Andrew only stared, letting his anger rise but fought to maintain his composure.

The only sign of discomfort she wasn't aware of was her lips deciding on their own accord to press into a thin line to keep in the comeback that now rested on the tip of her tongue. She wouldn't make the same mistake again.

This tactic didn't escape Bender's notice and he shifted his gaze down, making no effort to conceal his action as he openly stared at her mouth. A move she countered as she quickly relaxed her lips, her self-consciousness winning that battle. Even in her anger, there was a part of her mind that recognized that his tactic was working. Despite her warm sweater, she felt goose pimples rising from her skin. She had two equal desires to slap him across the face and to also kiss him, with as much ferocity as she could muster, in either circumstance. She couldn't decide which she wanted more.

Once again, Andrew broke the silence.

"Leave her alone."

The tension didn't vanish as quickly as she had hoped. She blinked several times to break the contact but Bender continued to stare.

"I said leave her alone." Andrew said again. Bender finally looked away and faced the jock. Sadie pushed away the thoughts that she had hoped would have stayed banished from freshman year as she looked down and blushed.

"You gonna make me?"

"Yeah."

Bender suddenly stepped onto the table and walked over it quickly, jumping down in front of Andrew. With the adrenaline coursing through him, he was ready to vent his frustrations, even if it was through fighting with Sporto, which wasn't his first choice.

"You and how many of your friends?" he said, sparing a glance in Sadie's direction.

"Just me. Just you and me. Two hits. Me hitting you. You hitting the floor. Anytime you're ready, pal."

Bender only laughed as he slowly raised his hand to Andrew's face, who quickly deflected it and had both of Bender's arms locked behind him and he had the taller boy pinned to the floor in seconds. Sadie gasped at the quick violence and marveled at how Andrew had the criminal in his grasp, trying to help her.

She suddenly feared that the fight would escalate and realized how close she was to the two of them, a thought that made her rise from her seat and slowly back away past the table.

"I don't wanna get into this with you, man." Bender warned. A proclamation that made Sadie very doubtful of Bender's fighting abilities, Andrew had speed and training. He could easily take Bender, as he had just proved. Andrew pushed Bender down and stood up.

"Why not?"

Bender stood as well.

"Cause I'd kill you." He said, turning around to face Andrew, walking past him backwards, "It's real simple, I'd kill you and your fucking parents would sue me, and it'd be a big mess and I don't care enough about you to bother."

"Chicken shit." Andrew muttered loud enough for everyone to hear. Sadie was about to voice her agreement until she heard a 'click'. Looking back, she saw that Bender was now holding a switchblade. Upon seeing the knife, everyone straightened up, more alert than ever. Hand to hand, Andrew would win a fight, no doubt about it, but with an armed and questionably unstable Bender involved, she wasn't so sure anymore.

Sadie never thought she'd actually fear Bender, who stared at Andrew with a dangerous look on his face before slamming the knife into the back of the chair next to him with a grunt. Andrew drew up his courage again. While he spoke, the dark girl reached over to pull Bender's knife out of the chair and tucked it into her bag, which Bender failed to notice. Sadie would have laughed at this if she wasn't amazed that Andrew Clarke, of all people, was defending her.

"Let's end this right now. You don't talk to either one of them again. You don't look at them, and you don't even think about them! You understand me?" he yelled.

"I'm trying to help." Bender offered simply.

"I don't need the kind of help you'd be offering." Sadie spat before sitting back down, he turned to look at her at the back of her head, looking almost hurt. Andrew only smirked at Bender before sitting down as well, catching Sadie's eye in the process. Once he was settled in his seat, she quietly spoke.

"Thanks."

He looked at her, surprised at her gratitude but he quickly recovered with a noncommittal shrug.

"Don't mention it." He said, before relaxing in his chair again.

Silence filled the air again, as everyone else also started relaxing after the tense conversation. Sadie was left wondering why Andrew would stand up for her, especially when he was friends with Stubby. Or Robert, rather, as that was his real name.

And Bender was left standing in front of the statue, alone and forgotten for the moment.

* * *

**I proofread and edit but if I missed any spelling mistakes of flubbed on some grammar, please point it out so I can fix it. Let me know what you think also, leave a comment!**


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